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Want to attract more than 100,000 followers on Twitter? Try speaking a dead language.

In January, the Vatican launched a Twitter account for Pope Francis, @pontifex_ln, which features tweets only
in Latin.

The feed’s language, which fell out of popular use centuries ago, shows some impressive results.

The account, “Papa Franciscus,” which was predicted to attract at most
5,000 followers, exploded in popularity. The Latin feed has garnered almost 118,000 followers—which makes it more popular than the Pope’s Arabic, Polish,
and German Twitter accounts.

What makes this dead language so popular and what can your company learn from its unusual success?

Embrace company culture

Latin is a pillar of Roman Catholic culture. When Pope Benedict XVI launched the first papal Twitter in December 2012, letters from around the world
arrived at the Vatican asking for a Latin account, reports NPR.

Southwest tweets personal stories about employees and discusses fun projects the airline is working on. It also encourages customers to get
involved with the Southwest community, a recent example being the #Hunt4SWA competition.